Broccolitas: The 10 Year Broccoli Wonder By Jonathan Bates : Food Forest Farm : [email protected] Sea Kale (Crambe maritima)
Turkish Rocket (Bunias orientalis)
We will discuss their history, how to propagate, grow, harvest and market them, meet some of their pests, and how, like asparagus, they can be row cropped like a vegetable,
or grown in complex polycultures on “poor” land. We’ll also look at other possible new crops. An Opportunity
Problem... How to increase spring/fall access to fresh local vegetables in MA, using low cost, low maintenance techniques? -solutions seem to be infrastructure or energy or labor intensive (cold storage, greenhouses, canning, etc). Solution... Early and late season perennial vegetables. e.g. Asparagus, sunchokes -this solution, over time, seems to be a low cost, low maintenance and low energy approach (combine with diverse plantings on poor land intensifies these qualities). What is a broccolita? The name Meg gave to perennial broccolis
(inspired by the fact that the word ‘broccolini’ is copy righted) History
Sea kale is an old English vegetable, found growing wild along the sea coast. It fell out of favor before the industrial revolution... From the book the Vegetable Garden, c1885: “When properly cooked, they preserve all their firmness, and have a very fine and agreeable flavour, like that of hazelnuts, with a very slight amount of bitterness.”
Turkish rocket is a native of West Asia (i.e. Turkey) and doesn't seem to be as popular in Europe as Sea kale, but there is this notation from the same book above: “This plant has been highly spoken of as a kitchen- garden plant. It commences to grow very early in the spring, when other fresh green vegetables are exceedingly scarce...” How they Grow sea kale
Spring early growth, note buds and ornamental purple blue foliage (10 yr old plant) Marketable broccolis, early to mid-April Yard filling honey scented flowers (assuming you don’t cut all of the broccolis!) How they Grow Turkish rocket April broccolitas, cut and used like broccoli raab, top 6 to 8 inches, mustardy flavor Delicious, fresh, mustardy, spring vegetable, cook with butter, salt and pepper. Propagation
Sea kale propagated by root cuttings. Turkish rocket by seed.
I start sea kale in February, inside, in soil filled flats, planting 3 inch long root cuttings. Ready to plant out in May.
Either started by seed they have a thick seed casing. Must soak, stratify, remove from casing, or let rot on soil over winter for best germination. Harvest & Markets
Marketing the broccoli shoots to restaurants Nutrition/ Fodder Options
Bunius orientalis plants are rich in micronutrients.
100 g of dry product contained 21.4 mg of iron, 0.84 mg copper, 2.73 mg manganese, 5 mg of titanium, .56 of molybdenum, 2 mg of boron. Contains 58 mg of vitamin C. (Oranges are 53 mg!!!) As a food its used mainly in fresh form. Can be prepared in salads, vinaigrettes, soups, seasoning for meat and fish dishes. It can be dried, pickled, salted. This concerns mainly the leaves, shoots and young stems.
You can pickle roots in grated form, an use them as condiments like horseradish. Dried powdered roots lose the bitterness and can be used for the preparation of sauces and condiments.
Green mass in the flowering phase contains dry matter 22-24% crude protein. The budding stage has 33 mg / kg carotene.
Almost all kinds of animals, including cattle, pigs and poultry, readily eat herbage at budding stage.
Biological yield of green mass of 300-600 kg / ha - 2 to 3 times alfalfa.
Non-traditional fodder plants: Bunias orientalis. Karpenko, A. P.; Vakulenko, A. I.; Matsyna, T. V. Kormovye Kul'tury 1990 No. 6 pp. 16-18 Maintenance
I've experienced growing these plants in most conditions and they are still growing after 10 years!!!:
moist, dry, hot, cold (zone 5)
clay, loam, sand, compacted urbanite, acid soil
part shade or full sun.
Giving them moist, rich, aerated soil tends to make them grow more!
They are adapted to root disturbance.
But, there are some pests... Pests
Pieris brassicae Row Cropping Perennial Polycultures of
Multipurpose Plants Other potentials...
wild arugula, Diplotaxis tenuifolia ‘Sylvetta’ (Brassicaceae)
water celery, Oenanthe javanica (Apiaceae) scorzonera, Scorzonera hispanica (Asteraceae) giant orache Atriplex hortensis (Chenopodioideae) Wild arugula
Spicy arugula flavor
Easy to grow, clumping
Perennial zone 6
Nicely lobed, adds texture to salads
Self seeds extremely well
Plant once have forever
Does get leaf miners Water celery
Grows under Spring snow!
Celery leaf added to salads
Important crop grown in the tropics
Adapted to water or dry partial shade.
Effective ground cover
Produces little to no seed, propagates by runners
No major pests (groundhogs) Scorzonera
Cook root like parsnip (annual) – tastes like french fries!
Cook shoot/leaves (perennial) – glorious nutty vegetable
Beautiful giant dandelion flowers, insectory
High in inulin (root), a starch for diabetics
Large seed, easy to collect and plant out
No major pests Giant lambsquarters (orache)
Cook like spinach
Easy to grow
Slow to bolt
Probably similar nutrition to superfood lambs quarters
Large seed, easy to collect and plant out
Common pests an issue: aphids, leaf miners, etc.
Not genetically perennial, treat like self seeding annual Viable Crop? Who's With Me!
Next Steps: Increase production Share/sell material for others to try Observe plantings, data collection
Harvest the yield Market and sell retail, e.g. restaurants Evaluate
Maybe write SARE grant for further study Contact me at
www.PermacultureNursery.com